Creative Writing Program welcomes visiting writer Joshua Furst

Posted: November 10, 2009

Visiting writer Joshua Furst will read fiction, answer questions, and sign books. Furst is the author of The Sabotage Cafe, a novel that the Washington Times hails for its ability "to capture both the clear heartache of a mother whose child has left home and the fuzzy logic of a mind misled by mental illness." Winner of the 2008 Grub Street Fiction Prize, The Sabotage Cafe was also selected as a 2007 Favorite Book of the Year by the Chicago Tribune and the Philadelphia City Paper. Furst's first book, a short story collection titled Short People, has been lauded as "sharp, funny, [and] generous-minded" (Washington Post Book World) and "a near-magical collection" (Miami Herald).

Furst is also an accomplished playwright whose work has been produced in a number of theaters, both in the U.S. and abroad. Among the awards and grants he has received are a 2001-2002 James Michener-Paul Engle Fellowship, a 1997 Chicago Tribune Nelson Algren Award, and fellowships from the MacDowell Colony and ArtOmi/Ledig House.